Libraries and Museums: Year In Review 1995

LIBRARIES

During 1995 various events demonstrated the uncertainties facing libraries in a rapidly changing world. Two commonly held, but fully opposed, notions about libraries aptly articulated those uncertainties. One held that libraries serve a totemic function, that architecturally grand and massive library buildings stand as symbols of the wisdom and culture of the organizations that create them. The second notion stated that physical libraries would cease to exist; the library of the future would be a television set capable of retrieving all of the world’s wisdom and culture through the Internet.

Supporting the totemic view was the 1995 dedication of the new Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia, that country’s national library. The Kuala Lumpur facility employed architectural treatments, particularly in the shape of its blue roof, that reflected the cultural heritage of Malaysia. Reviled by Britain’s Prince Charles and legions of others, and becoming a metaphor for national disarray, the new British Library at St. Pancras station was now--after some 30 years of work, delay, cost overruns, and controversy--completely visible. In 1995 some critics cautiously announced that the building may be not an architectural abomination but rather an exciting and edifying edifice. Meanwhile, across the English Channel, France rushed, nearly successfully, to complete the construction of the National Library of France during Pres. François Mitterrand’s term of office because Mitterrand considered the library, located on the Left Bank of the Seine, to be a part of his legacy. The design employed four L-shaped glass towers, each resembling an open book. Reading areas were located below. The design outraged many bibliophiles because exposure to sunlight makes preservation of materials problematic.

The new public library in San Antonio, Texas, also caused architectural controversy; Denver, Colo., and Phoenix, Ariz., also opened new downtown central libraries in 1995. The New York Public Library celebrated its centennial on May 20 and in November announced the receipt of $15 million--the largest one-time benefaction in its history--to renovate the historic Main Reading Room. On the last day of the year, San Francisco’s Main Library closed. The books would be moved to a new building across the street.

The Oklahoma City, Okla., downtown library was closed for just over a month following the explosion that devastated the nearby federal office building on April 19. The bomb blew out 90% of the library’s windows as well as causing extensive ceiling damage on the upper floors.

Even as countries, cities, and universities built grand symbols of culture and learning, librarians worked to create an electronic future that might make those structures obsolete. Worldwide, budgets lagged behind demands for materials and services, and librarians, particularly in less-developed nations, knew that a computer and an Internet connection were less expensive than a large collection. North America and Western Europe continued to lead, but many of the fastest-growing computerized library networks were in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the Pacific.

Cooperative ventures abounded. The 1995 General Conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, held in August in Istanbul, focused on turning the global promise of the Internet into a reality. The European Union was funding projects that promoted resource sharing within and across borders. A record-breaking 13,178 paid registrants at the American Library Association’s 114th annual conference in Chicago heard new ALA Executive Director Elizabeth Martinez announce "ALA Goal 2000," a five-year plan to position the association for the Information Age. In February the U.S. Library of Congress unveiled Thomas, a new computer system (named for Thomas Jefferson) giving citizens Internet access to information on the workings of Congress. The library came under attack when it closed an exhibit on slavery the day after it opened. Several black officers and staff members had complained.

Amid charges of a cover-up of recent book mutilations at the Library of Congress, the U.S. General Accounting Office planned to conduct a review of the library’s management as well as oversee a federal investigation of the damage. Public library circulation in the U.S. showed a modest decline of 3% in 1994, while expenditures leveled off to keep pace with inflation, according to the annual University of Illinois survey. In the face of declining circulation and diminishing advertising revenues, the 81-year-old Wilson Library Bulletin ceased publication in June.

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